An ethnography of family arrangements, lionesses and women with superpowers: shared care practices among the holders of the social program “Ellas Hacen”

Abstract

This article addresses the daily practices of care carried out by the members of the cooperative “Las Leonas”, from Las Quintas neighborhood in the city of La Plata, as part of the social program “Ellas Hacen”. The possibility of participating in this program requires that the holders establish specific care modalities that allow them to fulfill the required activities. As I show below “Las Leonas” –the lionesses- generate collective practices of care. I argue that this type of organization articulates families and especially women in collaborative frames, enabled by the parental, ethnic and migratory ties maintained by the domestic groups that make up the neighborhood. In this sense, I suggest that these shared practices respond creatively to single-parent models of care, facilitating women’s access to productive work and socialization outside of the domestic sphere.